Re: [meteorite-list] YouTube Hunting Meteorites Video
Hi Mark, I saw that before and I certainly hope they were able to save the tree, though it is unlikely, as importing plants is a HUGE deal, at least in the US, where permits are required, species identified, etc. However, it would certainly make the world's most unique bonsai! Michael on 1/8/07 9:41 PM, MARK BOSTICK at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Not sure if this has been posted before. Looks like they found a baby tree growing in a Oman meteorite... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2j1kdPeL_o Clear Skies, Mark __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list -- It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on him not understanding it. - Upton Sinclair -- What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It is what we know for sure that just ain't so. - Josh Billings (but oft credited to Mark Twain) __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
Quoting the famous words of Mork, I replynano nano. Best, John At 09:47 PM 1/8/2007, Sterling K. Webb wrote: Hi, Gerry, How big is nano again, one billionth of a ---? One billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter, so if you had nanobacteria that were 100 nm long, it would take 10,000 of them, head to tail (assuming they had heads or tails), to span one millimeter. A wavelength of visible light would be 400 nm to 770 nm (depending on its color), so a 100 nm nanobacteria would be about 1/6 the width of one wavelength of yellow light. (Do you suppose they surf?) There is a smaller unit, the angstrom, which is one ten-billionth of a meter, or ten times smaller. We're talking SMALL here -- individual atoms range from five angstroms (hydrogen) up to about 15 angstroms in size (lead). Figure atoms at one nm +/- half an nm. So a 100 nm critter is at most only 200 atoms wide and could only contain about 8 million small atoms if it were a sphere. A simple organic molecule, like cooking oil, is about 20 angstroms across; that's 2 nm. We can measure that molecular size in our backyards, by the way, by placing a tiny drop of oil of known volume on the surface of a big calm pool of water and waiting for it to spread out as far as it can go, then divide the known volume by the area of the oil-slick, which is only one molecule thick. Neat trick, eh? Who thought of that? Benjamin Franklin... Most viruses are 10 nm to 100 nm, but the record-holder is 400 nm, or bigger than some bacteria. Most bacteria range from 200 nm (the very tiniest) up to big nasty ones at 2000 nm. Helpful little animals like yeast cells (there are 600+ species of yeast) are 2000 nm, no bigger than a bacterium, up to 15,000 nm. Cells of protozoa like amoeba are 20,000 to 30,000 nm across, but every once in a while an ameoba may grow to 4,000,000 nm across --- that's 4 mm and almost big enough to have a sit-down talk with! (If they had anything to say...) Protozoa like paramecium are very complicated creatures. Even though they are only one cell, they have specialized cellular structures that function as gullets, stomachs, excretory organs, and legs. They have an interesting sex life and probably have more to say than that amoeba... The many paramecium species range from less than 100,000 nm up to as much as 500,000 nm, or big enough to see with the naked eye (well, your eyes, maybe; mine are not quite that good). One of your own 100,000 billion human body cells is on average, about 10,000 nm across and weighs, on average, about one nanogram, less if you're skinny. And, me, I'm about 1,775,000,000 nm tall. Does that put things in perspective? Sterling K. Webb --- - Original Message - From: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 7:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! The relatively recent acceptence of germs required a revolution in the medical community ushering in the modern norm where cleanliness became the imperative. So it seems plausible that self-replicating nano things might make modern science balk. How big is nano again, one billionth of a---? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Ultimate scam
Darren Garrison was kind enough to send me the following link re the hit man con: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/09/hitman.email.ap/index.html Best wishes, Michael -- It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on him not understanding it. - Upton Sinclair -- What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It is what we know for sure that just ain't so. - Josh Billings (but oft credited to Mark Twain) __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006 P1(McNaught)
The brightest in 30 years, I finally take the time to read about the comet to see when viewing will be best and I find out it is tonight. Well as my luck would have it, here in the lovely and normally clear sky'd desert southwest we have clouds and rain forecast until Sunday or Monday. Seems like I never have the time to do some of the more important things. Mark M. CLOUDY Phoenix Arizona - Original Message - From: Ron Baalke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite Mailing List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:15 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006 P1(McNaught) Space Weather News for Jan. 10, 2007 http://spaceweather.com Comet McNaught has continued to brighten as it approaches the sun and it is now the brightest comet in 30 years. For observers in the northern Hemisphere, tonight is probably the best time to see it: Go outside this evening and face the sunset. A clear view of the western horizon is essential, because the comet hangs very low. As the twilight fades to black, it should become visible to the naked eye. Observers say it's a fantastic sight through binoculars. In the days ahead, Comet McNaught will pass the sun and emerge in good position for southern hemisphere viewing later this month. Meanwhile, solar heating will continue to puff up the comet, causing it to brighten even more. It could become one of the brightest comets in centuries, visible even in daylit skies. Visit http://spaceweather.com for photos and updates. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Queensland meteorites
Hi Listoids I'm gonna talk to my geeky friendz on the weekend and get them to help me html code a page for an interest group for Queensland (Australia) meteorites Queensland is my home state and has many interesting meteorites with a sad story of many either lost or stolen or otherwise missing in action... I'd like to hear from anyone who has an interest in Queensland meteorites for their thoughts and input and to start the ball rolling for an interest group My longer term plan is to make the html page into a permanent meteoritical history of Queensland and to act as a beater to flush out the ones that are missing Ciao __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] queensland meteorites
Hi Listoids Firstly - apologies if this has been posted twice but there has been some difficulties with my mailserver... I'm gonna talk to my geeky friendz on the weekend and get them to help me html code a page for an interest group for Queensland (Australia) meteorites Queensland is my home state and has many interesting meteorites with a sad story of many either lost or stolen or otherwise missing in action... I'd like to hear from anyone who has an interest in Queensland meteorites for their thoughts and input and to start the ball rolling for an interest group My longer term plan is to make the html page into a permanent meteoritical history of Queensland and to act as a beater to flush out the ones that are missing Ciao __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] NJ Homeowners Tell of Meteorite Which, Crashed In Their Bathroom
The Nageswarans have not decided what to do with their meteorite, despite plenty of advice from family and friends. But they said they want to make sure that the rock, which they have locked up at a bank, serves an educational purpose. SO TEST THE DAMN THING! Who is advising this family?!! It is aggravating that people who appear to want to do the right thing [e.g. serve an educational purpose] have either not been told of the importance of short-lived isotope testing, or have not heeded the message. And just as a reminder, it has yet to be proved that this object is even a meteorite! Four gentlemen passing around a metallic lump for ten minutes does not constitute a conclusive analysis, regardless of how many papers they've published on meteorites. --Rob Exactly, Rob! Irons just cannot be identified with certainty by a visual inspection only. Too many industrial products look like legitimate irons. I do not trust a positive identification without a proper lab report. Besides of that, given how the object looks in the pictures it is paramount that shortlived isotopes prove this is a fresh fall and not an eBay fall. - Marco - Dr Marco Langbroek Dutch Meteor Society (DMS) e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] website: http://www.dmsweb.org priv. website: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek - __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006 P1(McNaught)
I've been without internet at home over the christmas break and find out too late. It's blowing a hoolie up here in the Western Isles of the UK and the glorious skies of the last 2 weeks are gone for a week so it looks like I'm going to miss it. A real shame because it would have made a spectacular photo over some of our coasts. Looks like the luck antipodeans are going to get the best views again, just like Halley. (missed that one too. Don't suppose I'll be around for its next showing). At least I saw Hale-Bopp. Rob McC --- Mark [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The brightest in 30 years, I finally take the time to read about the comet to see when viewing will be best and I find out it is tonight. Well as my luck would have it, here in the lovely and normally clear sky'd desert southwest we have clouds and rain forecast until Sunday or Monday. Seems like I never have the time to do some of the more important things. Mark M. CLOUDY Phoenix Arizona - Original Message - From: Ron Baalke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite Mailing List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:15 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006 P1(McNaught) Space Weather News for Jan. 10, 2007 http://spaceweather.com Comet McNaught has continued to brighten as it approaches the sun and it is now the brightest comet in 30 years. For observers in the northern Hemisphere, tonight is probably the best time to see it: Go outside this evening and face the sunset. A clear view of the western horizon is essential, because the comet hangs very low. As the twilight fades to black, it should become visible to the naked eye. Observers say it's a fantastic sight through binoculars. In the days ahead, Comet McNaught will pass the sun and emerge in good position for southern hemisphere viewing later this month. Meanwhile, solar heating will continue to puff up the comet, causing it to brighten even more. It could become one of the brightest comets in centuries, visible even in daylit skies. Visit http://spaceweather.com for photos and updates. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Yahoo! Music Unlimited Access over 1 million songs. http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] AD - First Ebay sale of 2007
Good Morning Meteorite Lovers I have auctions ending tonight catchafallingstar.com. Most started at 99 Cents!!!: http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPageuserid=catchafallingstar.com Full recap with photos on Paul and Jim's website: http://www.meteorite.com/meteorites/ebay/catch_a_falling_star_meteorites.htm Thanks for looking Jim Strope 421 Fourth Street Glen Dale, WV 26038 http://www.catchafallingstar.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] A new french meteorite discovered !
Me and Alain Carion are proud to announce the existence of a new french meteorite. The meteorite of Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne fell September 29, 1799 near Le Mans (west of France). A farmer saw a stone falling in front of him while he was collecting grain. The stone was certainly broken apart. It weighed about 4.6 kilograms but most of it was forever lost. Alain Carion found a 12 grams fragment in the J. Chadel collection he bought in november 2006 and another piece of 40 grams was kept in the Musee Vert of Le Mans where we met the curator last week. Only two rare articles spoke of this fall (in 1841 and 1881) ; that's the reason why its existence was confidential. It's an ordinary chondrite and it's still under classification at the MNHN, Paris. Alain Carion will show you its 12 grams fragment of the Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne meteorite in Tucson (Inn Suite, room 123) during the Show. Pierre-Marie PELE www.meteor-center.com ___ Découvrez une nouvelle façon d'obtenir des réponses à toutes vos questions ! Profitez des connaissances, des opinions et des expériences des internautes sur Yahoo! Questions/Réponses http://fr.answers.yahoo.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Forestburg (b) TS pictures on MarkBostick's website
I wrote yesterday: I'd like to invite you to take a look at TS picture #2 on Mark's website and compare it to my thin section picture of the Forestburg (b) L5 shock blackened chondrite that can be viewed on Gary's website. Any thoughts about what you see? Here are the URL's: http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colforestburgbtsb.html http://www.meteorite-dealers.com/forestburg-thinsection.html John K. responded: Bernd, Cool. Someone has a thin saw. Who made these? I bought this TS from AL many years ago, in 1999 (Feb). Its high quality is clear evidence that it must have come from David New and his expert slide maker whose name most insiders will probably know. We all know that quality has its price and there are worlds between the quality of this TS and some others I have. Gary wrote: The similarities are amazing. Yep, that's it and that's why I wrote to Mark, Zélimir and to Roger in a private mail: I just noticed that picture #5433_R (complex ovoid barred olivine chondrule - 4.5 mm) is identical to my complex BO chondrule - in other words our two slides may be sister slides, they may come from the same series of cuts. Cheers, Bernd To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] A new french meteorite !
Me and Alain Carion are proud to announce the existence of a new french meteorite. The meteorite of Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne fell September 29, 1799 near Le Mans (west of France). A farmer saw a stone falling in front of him while he was collecting grain. The stone was certainly broken apart. It weighed about 4.6 kilograms but most of it was forever lost. Alain Carion found a 12 grams fragment in the J. Chadel collection he bought in november 2006 and another piece of 40 grams was kept in the Musee Vert of Le Mans where we met the curator last week. Only two rare articles spoke of this fall (in 1841 and 1881) ; that's the reason why its existence was confidential. It's an ordinary chondrite and it's still under classification at the MNHN, Paris. Alain Carion will show you its 12 grams fragment of the Saint-Ouen-en-Champagne meteorite in Tucson (Inn Suite, room 123) during the Show. A chapter on this new french meteorite will probably be added in the second edition of my book. Pierre-Marie PELE www.meteor-center.com __ Do You Yahoo!? En finir avec le spam? Yahoo! Mail vous offre la meilleure protection possible contre les messages non sollicités http://mail.yahoo.fr Yahoo! Mail __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Ad: Cheapest Chondrites Ever Offered
Hello List, I have an excellent offer at a time when the market is seeing a slow down in material coming out of Morocco. I have 60 kilo's of ordinary unclassified chondrites for sale. There may be some surprises in these, as I have not searched through them and my last large shipment had several kilo's of the EL3. These stones are medium to lower quality and some have crust and the average size is under 100 grams. These would be great for re-sale, cutting, giveaways, or to hang onto until ordinary chondrites are back up to $2/gram. The price is $1750 and that includes shipping in the United States. If necessary, I will sell in lots of 10 kilo's for $390 with free shipping in the United States. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Jason Phillips Rocks from Heaven www.rocksfromheaven.com Telephone: 217-832-4505 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006 P1(McNaught)
On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:58:20 -0800 (PST), you wrote: break and find out too late. It's blowing a hoolie up here in the Western Isles of the UK and the glorious Hm. Never heard that term before. But you have my sympathies: http://www.dayoopers.com/rocknock.html __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] New photo of the NJO
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650221958,00.html __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Meteorite hunter= slur?
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/NEWS01/701090375/1007 Geologist claims defamation Texan sues after MSU professor criticizes meteorite find in News-Leader guest column. Melissa DeLoach News-Leader A Texas geologist alleges a Missouri State geology professor libeled and defamed him in a News-Leader guest column criticizing the October find of a 154-pound Brenham meteorite fragment in a Kansas wheat field. Philip C. Mani, along with Brenham Meteorite Co. Ltd., claim in a lawsuit filed Monday in Greene County Circuit Court that Kevin Evans disparaged them and their findings by referring to them as meteorite hunters. They claim Evans insinuated that the team of scientists whose use of ground-penetrating radar was touted for its potential in exploration of the planet Mars exaggerated and lacked sufficient information concerning their work. Evans wrote in a Nov. 6 opinion piece, Science loses when PR becomes top priority, that the meteorite had in fact been discovered by a Springfield high school student two weeks earlier working on a science fair project. Said Evans: When public institutions and government agencies partner with commercial enterprises to hunt for meteorites and then publicize undocumented claims, it short-circuits science methods and it sends the wrong message to students. This concerns me both as a geologist and as a teacher of future scientists. The plaintiffs allege Evans' statements are false and threaten to damage their reputations and the value of the recovery. Further, it could jeopardize their ability to conduct meteorite research and recovery in the future. They are seeking unspecified damages. Evans, when contacted Monday, declined to comment. He said he had not yet seen the lawsuit. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA Funds Scripps Instrument For Probing For Life on Mars
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/article_detail.cfm?article_num=768 Scripps Contacts: Mario Aguilera or Cindy Clark 858/534-3624 [EMAIL PROTECTED] For Release: January 9, 2007 NASA Funds Scripps Instrument For Probing For Life on Mars Detector to hunt for organic molecules during proposed 2013 mission On Monday, NASA announced $750,000 in funding for development of an instrument to detect signs of life on Mars proposed by a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. The instrument is designed to provide the most rigorous analysis possible for the past and present existence of biological compounds on Mars' surface, according to Jeffrey Bada, a professor at Scripps and lead investigator on the project team. Other principal scientists are Richard Mathies of UC Berkeley and Frank Grunthaner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as well as researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Menlo Park and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry in the Netherlands. Urey Instrument Elements of the Urey instrument include the Mars Oxidant Instrument (MOI), the Mars Organic Detector (MOD), the MicroCapillary Electrophoresis Instrument (CE), and the Sub-critical Water Extractor (SCWE). Named after the late Nobel Laureate and UC San Diego scholar Harold C. Urey, the Urey Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector will perform the first search for key classes of organic molecules in the Martian environment using state-of-the-art analytical methods at part-per-trillion sensitivities. The Viking landers in the 1970s unsuccessfully tested for organic molecules on Mars, but their sensitivity was so low that they would have failed to detect life even if there were a million bacteria per gram of soil. Urey will able to detect key molecules associated with life at a sensitivity roughly a million times greater than previous instrumentation, said Bada, a professor of marine chemistry and director of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Exobiology at Scripps. It will be the first instrument to have the capacity to detect amino acids, along with other possible biomolecules, and determine their origin on another planet. Urey has been selected for the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover mission, a Mars exploration mission scheduled for launch in 2013 that will focus on exobiology, the science of life in space and on other planets. ExoMars will include a highly mobile rover with a drill capable of extracting soil samples two meters below the Mars surface. A compact instrument that you can hold in your hand, Urey will search for trace levels of organic molecules, such as amino acids and some of the components of DNA and RNA, by heating and analyzing spoon-sized amounts of Martian soil. The molecules released from the heating are condensed on a trap cooled to Mars' nighttime temperature, and then probed with a laser. If amino acids are detected, a device developed at UC Berkeley, called the microfabricated capillary electrophoresis instrument. examines the amino acid composition and chirality, or handedness, of the molecules to determine whether they come from biological sources. Non-biological amino acids contain nearly equal amounts of left- and right-handed forms, while those from organic matter exhibit excessive amounts of one hand or the other. Amino acids on Earth use only left-handed amino acids. Testing for chirality provides an unambiguous way of detecting life, said Bada. So if we see a significant excess of right-handed amino acids, the only conclusion that's possible is: Eureka! We've detected unique Martian life that's not related to Earth life whatsoever. Bada indicated that digging deep into the Martian soil is vital to the mission since ultraviolet and cosmic radiation have likely eliminated any potential indications of life on the planet's surface. Humans are incredibly intrigued about the possibility of life beyond Earth, said Bada. We're at a moment in time when we are going to be addressing this issue in the most robust way that's ever been attempted. I think it is extra-ordinarily interesting that if we do detect life on Mars, it not only provides us with an opportunity to try and understand how life began on that planet, but also will help us understand how life began on our own planet. Development of the Urey instrument is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. # # # Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at the University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for global science research and graduate training in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide. The scientific scope of the institution has grown since its founding in 1903 to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical, and atmospheric
[meteorite-list] Lightning Balls Created In The Lab
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19325863.500 Lightning balls created in the lab Hazel Muir New Scientist 10 January 2007 Ball lightning could soon lose its status as a mystery, now that a team in Brazil has cooked up a simple recipe for making similar eerie orbs of light in the lab, even getting them to bounce around for several seconds. Watch a movie of the boucing balls here. http://www.espacociencia.pe.gov.br/multimidia.php Thousands of people have reported seeing ball lightning, a luminous sphere that sometimes appears during thunderstorms. It is typically the size of a grapefruit and lasts for a few seconds or minutes, sometimes hovering, even bouncing along the ground. One eyewitness saw a glowing ball burn through the screen door of a house in Oregon, navigate down to the basement and wreck an old mangle, while in another report, a similar orb bounced on a Russian teacher's head more than 20 times before vanishing. One theory suggests that ball lightning is a highly ionised blob of plasma held together by its own magnetic fields, while an exotic explanation claims the cause is mini black holes created in the big bang. A more down-to-earth theory, proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, is that ball lightning forms when lightning strikes soil, turning any silica in the soil into pure silicon vapour. As the vapour cools, the silicon condenses into a floating aerosol bound into a ball by charges that gather on its surface, and it glows with the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen. To test this idea, a team led by Antonio Pavao and Gerson Paiva from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil took wafers of silicon just 350 micrometres thick, placed them between two electrodes and zapped them with currents of up to 140 amps. Then over a couple of seconds, they moved the electrodes slightly apart, creating an electrical arc that vaporised the silicon. The arc spat out glowing fragments of silicon but also, sometimes, luminous orbs the size of ping-pong balls that persisted for up to 8 seconds. The luminous balls seem to be alive, says Pavao. He says their fuzzy surfaces emitted little jets that seemed to jerk them forward or sideways, as well as smoke trails that formed spiral shapes, suggesting the balls were spinning. From their blue-white or orange-white colour, Pavao's team estimates that they have a temperature of roughly 2000 kelvin. The balls were able to melt plastic, and one even burned a hole in Paiva's jeans. These are by far the longest-lived glowing balls ever made in the lab. Earlier experiments using microwaves created luminous balls but they disappeared milliseconds after the microwaves were switched off. The lifetimes of our fireballs are about a hundred or more times higher than that obtained by microwaves, says Pavao, whose findings will appear in Physical Review Letters. Abrahamson is thrilled. It made my year when I heard about it, he says. The balls, although still small, lasted long enough to come into the mainstream of observed natural ball lightning. Pavao's team is currently working out the chemical reactions involved in the balls' formation, and experimenting with other materials that might work too, including pure metals, alloys and sulphur compounds. From issue 2586 of New Scientist magazine, 10 January 2007, page 12 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] SOHO Prepares For Comet McNaught
ESA News http://www.esa.int 11 January 2007 SOHO prepares for comet McNaught Recently, sky watchers in the Northern Hemisphere have been enjoying the sight of Comet McNaught in the twilight sky. Now, solar physicists using the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft are getting ready for their view. For four days in January, the comet will pass through SOHO's line of sight and could be the brightest comet SOHO has ever seen. As Comet McNaught heads towards its closest approach to the Sun on 12 January 2007, it will disappear from view for earthbound observers, becoming lost in the Sun's glare. That's where SOHO comes in. Poised in space between the Earth and Sun, SOHO ceaselessly watches the Sun and objects that pass nearby. Comet McNaught will pass within a fifth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. As the comet approaches the Sun, the amount of dust and gas it releases will increase dramatically, causing the comet to become extremely bright. This might become the brightest comet SOHO has ever seen, says Bernhard Fleck, SOHO Project Scientist. The material ejected from the comet forms the tails. There are two tails, the dust tail and the gas -- or ion -- tail. The dust tail is the brighter and is formed by the intense sunlight forcing dust particles away from the comet. The solar wind, a constant stream of material flowing from the Sun, drags ionized gas from the comet to create the ion-tail. Researchers Karl Battams and Jeff Morrill at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC are planning colour filter observations of these two comet tails. Close to the Sun the ion and dust tails move apart, a phenomenon that is often difficult to observe from the Earth. By measuring the ion-tail angle we can get information about the solar wind speed very close to the Sun, says Morrill. Comet McNaught is moving through space on an inclined orbit. This will carry it above the Sun's north pole and across the Sun's equator, a place where there is a reversal of the magnetic properties of the solar wind. Crossing this boundary could cause the comet's ion-tail to fragment. Observations of such events are generally very rare, so SOHO's images of comet McNaught constitute an exciting opportunity for scientists. After SOHO's work is finished, the comet will emerge from the Sun's glare and become visible again to earthbound sky watchers in the Southern Hemisphere. It could become a really bright object in the twilight sky, says Fleck. The ghostly veils of a bright comet are amongst the most spectacular of sights that can be seen in the night sky. Between 12 and 15 January, Comet McNaught will not be visible from Earth but everyone can still track the comet's passage near the Sun by looking at the SOHO images at http://soho.esac.esa.int/hotshots/ For more information Bernhard Fleck, ESA SOHO Project Scientist Email: bfleck @ esa.nascom.nasa.gov Daniel Mler, ESA SOHO Deputy Project Scientist Email: dmueller @ esa.nascom.nasa.gov Karl Battams, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA Email: karl.battams @ nrl.navy.mil Jeff Murrill, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA Email: morrill @ shogun.nrl.navy.mil [NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMMCRSVYVE_index_1.html ] __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Asteroid Tracker Due For Hawaii (Pan-STARRS)
http://starbulletin.com/2007/01/11/news/story10.html Asteroid tracker due for isles Hawaii astronomers say Mauna Kea is the preferred site for the new telescope facility By Helen Altonn Star Bulletin (Hawaii) January 11, 2007 Mauna Kea would be the best place scientifically for a proposed telescope to track potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroids and comets, a Hawaii Institute for Astronomy official said. If Mauna Kea is chosen over Haleakala, Maui, for the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, known as Pan-STARRS, it would replace the University of Hawaii's 88-inch telescope, said Mike Maberry, IFA assistant director for external relations. PUBLIC COMMENT INVITED Public meetings to obtain comment for a draft environmental impact statement for the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, will be held Jan. 23-31 on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and meetings will start at 6 p.m. as follows: BIG ISLAND o Jan. 23 at Kealakehe Intermediate School Cafeteria o Jan. 24 at the Waimea Civic Center o Jan. 25 at Hilo Campus Center MAUI o Jan. 30 at Cameron Center OAHU o Jan. 31 at the UH-Manoa's Center for Hawaiian Studies, Kamakakuokalani Building After presentations on the proposed telescope, people will be allowed to ask questions and make comments, which will be documented as part of the environmental process. The 88-inch is extremely productive, an excellent tool for students and faculty, Maberry said. But it is more than 35 years old and expensive to maintain, he said. Hearings are scheduled for this month on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu to get public comment for development of a draft environmental impact statement for Pan-STARRS. A prototype of the telescope is being developed on Haleakala, where two sites offer a possible alternative to Mauna Kea for a permanent system. One is undeveloped, Maberry said. The other was used previously for a radio telescope but is now a flat area, he said. Pan-STARRS' purpose is to detect and track asteroids and comets on a threatening path toward Earth. It will also survey other moving objects in space. Funding is provided through an agreement administered by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The UH will support maintenance and operation of Pan-STARRS and be responsible for processing what is expected to be a deluge of data and images. The $50 million system will have four telescopes, each with a digital camera with about 1.4 billion pixels. Working together, they will survey the visible sky once a week to help NASA reach its goal to categorize near-Earth objects larger than about 460 feet in diameter. A digital camera with more than 300 megapixels will be installed on the PS1 telescope next month, Maberry said. It will be the largest digital camera in the world, even though it is only one-quarter of the final camera. The prototype is being developed to test the technology for the full Pan-STARRS system, and it is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year, Maberry said. IFA astronomer Kenneth Chambers is project scientist for the PS1 survey. Maberry, based on Maui, said scientists are waiting for some optical elements to arrive, the largest astronomical filters ever made and a secondary mirror. We have a primary mirror but not secondary, he said, adding that a temporary secondary mirror is allowing astronomers to do some important alignments and tests. Geological, biological, mechanical and scientific surveys have been done of the proposed Pan-STARRS sites on Mauna Kea and Haleakala, Maberry said. And Mauna Kea is considered the prime site for the unique telescope for several reasons, he said. Prevailing tradewinds tend to bring clouds up out of the crater over the Haleakala Observatory site, so we experience more clear nights on Mauna Kea and nights where the 'seeing' disturbance is less. The four largest cameras in the world also will be very sensitive and susceptible to light pollution, and the Big Island has a lighting ordinance that controls light pollution, he said. Maui, even though we've been trying for six years, doesn't have a good lighting ordinance, and we do have a lot of light pollution. Another advantage of Mauna Kea is the distance of the summit from populated areas, which enhances the site for nighttime astronomy, Maberry said. The UH's Mees Solar Observatory was the first on Haleakala, deemed the best place in the world for solar observations, Maberry said. Haleakala might rank second to Mauna Kea for the four Pan-STARRS telescopes, but the 10,023-foot Maui summit is the chosen site for the $180 million Advanced Technology Solar Telescope. The ATST is about a year ahead of Pan-STARRS in the development process, Maberry said. A draft environmental impact statement was published last fall.
[meteorite-list] Florida 'Earthquake' Likely A Sonic Boom From Fighter Jets
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jan/11/did_you_hear_boom_it_was_most_likely_jet/ Did you hear the boom? It was most likely a jet Was it an earthquake? Was it a truck? Nope. the sound that rattled the area was the sound barrier being broken by F-16s, experts say By Chris W. Colby, Jeremy Cox Naples News (Florida) January 11, 2007 Meteorologists believe the most likely cause for the quaking that some residents in western Collier and Lee counties felt Wednesday was a sonic boom from aircraft flying off Florida's west coast. But seismologists are reporting three small earthquakes off Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as recently as about an hour before the quake was first reported in Collier. Residents from Marco Island to Cape Coral reported a quake around 10 a.m. Collier County Emergency Management officials contacted the National Weather Service to try to find out the source. No injuries or property damages were reported. Robert Molleda of Miami's National Weather Service office said meteorologists are uncertain of the cause. But officials at Key West Naval Air Station in Boca Chica reported the presence of several supersonic aircraft in the area Wednesday morning. When they exceed the sound barrier, there's a sonic boom. We believe the weather conditions were such that they were conducive to sound waves traveling a great distance from the source, Molleda said. The calm, dry, cool weather conditions Wednesday would contribute more to what occurred than the warm, wet weather more typical in Florida, Molleda said. There's no way to confirm this. But it's happened in the past, Molleda said. A visiting squadron of Air Force F-16s were doing a routine training mission within the Key West Naval Air Station's training boundaries at about 10 a.m. Wednesday when at least one broke the sound barrier, said Trice Denny, a spokeswoman at the station. She said she's not sure if the airplane caused a sonic boom. A plane can break the sound barrier without causing one. The planes, which were from the U.S. Air Force's 115th Fighter Wing, were about 70 miles southwest of Naples and about 20 miles within the boundary of the training area over the Gulf of Mexico, Denny said. She agreed that the clear, dry weather conditions carried the boom farther than usual. If it was any closer to you guys, you really would have felt it, she said. North Naples resident Richard Lyons said he sure did. My sliding glass doors started vibrating wildly. The noise was like a rumbling truck almost. I'd say it went on for about 5 seconds, Lyons said. Lyons, 60, lives on Mill Run Circle and felt the vibration at 9:52 a.m. He said he's experienced similar sensations at his home in years past. They're talking about it being a sonic boom, but that wasn't my feel about it. I felt it was some kind of earthquake, Lyons said. Geophysicists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said whatever caused the shaking probably wasn't an earthquake. The nearest seismometer, or earthquake monitoring station, is at the Disney Wilderness Preserve near Orlando, and it showed nothing out of the ordinary, said John Bellini, a geophysicist. However, according to the USGS Web site, three earthquakes were reported between 10:15 p.m. Tuesday and 8:58 a.m. Wednesday: two offshore of Puerto Rico and one offshore of the Dominican Republic. The quakes ranged from 3.1 to 4.6 in magnitude. At first the Collier County Emergency Operations Center reported an earthquake occurred 253 miles south-southwest of Apalachicola and registered 6.0 on the Richter scale. Thirty minutes later, EOC officials withdrew that. Fred DiFabio is the general manager of the Mole Hole in downtown Naples, a store specializing in gifts and glassware. He noticed the front windows shaking just before 10 a.m. The windows started shaking and I'm thinking, 'Wow, must be a very strong wind out there.' But after maybe 30 or 40 seconds it must have stopped. I looked to see if somebody was banging on the doors, but nobody was there, DiFabio said. In Lee County, the Lee Sheriff's Office began fielding several calls about the incident about 10 a.m., spokesman Deputy Angelo Vaughn said. Gerald Campbell, chief of planning for Lee County Emergency Management, received calls from the Sanibel Police Department and the Town of Fort Myers Beach about a mysterious seismic event. Campbell made a call to the state's emergency communications headquarters in Tallahassee, which would be one of the first to get reports of an earthquake. In this case they didn't have any reports, Campbell said. If it had been an earthquake, we would have found out pretty quickly. There were no reports in Lee County of damage or injury, Campbell said. Had it been an earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico, a tsunami would not be a big concern in Southwest Florida, Campbell said. Faults on the ocean floor of the Gulf of Mexico are not the kind that create huge tsunamis, he said. A few employees at Southwest
Re: [meteorite-list] Lightning Balls Created In The Lab
They look like the ideal pets for Dave Harris in the video -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Ron Baalke Gesendet: Donnerstag, 11. Januar 2007 18:50 An: Meteorite Mailing List Betreff: [meteorite-list] Lightning Balls Created In The Lab http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19325863.500 Lightning balls created in the lab Hazel Muir New Scientist 10 January 2007 Ball lightning could soon lose its status as a mystery, now that a team in Brazil has cooked up a simple recipe for making similar eerie orbs of light in the lab, even getting them to bounce around for several seconds. Watch a movie of the boucing balls here. http://www.espacociencia.pe.gov.br/multimidia.php Thousands of people have reported seeing ball lightning, a luminous sphere that sometimes appears during thunderstorms. It is typically the size of a grapefruit and lasts for a few seconds or minutes, sometimes hovering, even bouncing along the ground. One eyewitness saw a glowing ball burn through the screen door of a house in Oregon, navigate down to the basement and wreck an old mangle, while in another report, a similar orb bounced on a Russian teacher's head more than 20 times before vanishing. One theory suggests that ball lightning is a highly ionised blob of plasma held together by its own magnetic fields, while an exotic explanation claims the cause is mini black holes created in the big bang. A more down-to-earth theory, proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, is that ball lightning forms when lightning strikes soil, turning any silica in the soil into pure silicon vapour. As the vapour cools, the silicon condenses into a floating aerosol bound into a ball by charges that gather on its surface, and it glows with the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen. To test this idea, a team led by Antonio Pavao and Gerson Paiva from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil took wafers of silicon just 350 micrometres thick, placed them between two electrodes and zapped them with currents of up to 140 amps. Then over a couple of seconds, they moved the electrodes slightly apart, creating an electrical arc that vaporised the silicon. The arc spat out glowing fragments of silicon but also, sometimes, luminous orbs the size of ping-pong balls that persisted for up to 8 seconds. The luminous balls seem to be alive, says Pavao. He says their fuzzy surfaces emitted little jets that seemed to jerk them forward or sideways, as well as smoke trails that formed spiral shapes, suggesting the balls were spinning. From their blue-white or orange-white colour, Pavao's team estimates that they have a temperature of roughly 2000 kelvin. The balls were able to melt plastic, and one even burned a hole in Paiva's jeans. These are by far the longest-lived glowing balls ever made in the lab. Earlier experiments using microwaves created luminous balls but they disappeared milliseconds after the microwaves were switched off. The lifetimes of our fireballs are about a hundred or more times higher than that obtained by microwaves, says Pavao, whose findings will appear in Physical Review Letters. Abrahamson is thrilled. It made my year when I heard about it, he says. The balls, although still small, lasted long enough to come into the mainstream of observed natural ball lightning. Pavao's team is currently working out the chemical reactions involved in the balls' formation, and experimenting with other materials that might work too, including pure metals, alloys and sulphur compounds. From issue 2586 of New Scientist magazine, 10 January 2007, page 12 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Art's Email
Anyone have Art's email address? Please send off list. Thanks... Jim Strope 421 Fourth Street Glen Dale, WV 26038 http://www.catchafallingstar.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Ziz - Addendum for the Srope Clln
http://www.jfeenstra.com/midifiles/Ziz.mid (audio file). http://www.jfeenstra.com/listpics/Ziz.jpg Best Martin __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Massive carbonaeous chondrite on the hoof
COMET McNAUGHT. Sorry if you missed it as an evening apperition. Only a
handful of list members responded.
I know many are busy but I hoped not so busy that you might have taken an
hour to witness this splendid ASTRONOMICAL event
All is not lost, is it?, aside from vacationing in Terra del Fuego, I
mean??[Sterling and/or Doug{whose absence on this topic has been duly noted}
any input on the possibilities?
Jerry Flaherty
__
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Pluto's Demotion Tapped as 2006 Word of the Year
Gota love it!! Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 12:56 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] Pluto's Demotion Tapped as 2006 Word of the Year http://www.space.com/news/ap_070108_plutoed_word.html ANAHEIM, California (AP) - Pluto is finally getting some respect - from wordsmiths. Plutoed'' was chosen 2006 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting on Friday. To pluto'' is to demote or devalue someone or something'' much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto did not meet its definition of a planet... The 117-year-old organization includes linguists, grammarians, historians and independent scholars. In conducting the vote, members do so for fun and not in any official capacity of inducting words into the English language. Sterling K. Webb PS: If only the IAU operated the same way... __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] TEST
??? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] January Comet?
Doug or anyone currently on line with position of the recent Comet, I'd appreciate a head's up to locate it OR is it that conspicuous in the SW @ twilight??? It promises to be clear with a moonless twilight this evening in Plymouth, MA?? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] AD - ebay: Nakhla, Orgueil, Dundrum, Siena, Kerilis, Albin, Achilles, ...
Hello All, I have 11 auctions ending in about one day: Nakhla, Orgueil, Dundrum, Siena, Kerilis, Albin, Achilles, Finmarken, El Blida 002, Jelica, Boriskino. See them here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZpema9 Thank you! Peter MARMET-METEORITES Peter Marmet Bern, Switzerland, IMCA #2747 http://www.marmet-meteorites.com/ E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] eBay : http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZpema9 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] January Comet?
Hi Jerry, Location is going to be tough for you, but if you've got a clear, low, southwest horizon you might find it with binoculars. Look immediately after sunset, 8 degrees above the sun's location and about 3 degrees to the right. (Clockface analogy: if directly above the sun is 12 o'clock, and to the right of the sun is 3 o'clock, Comet McNaught is toward 1 o'clock from the sun.) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gerald Flaherty Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 11:31 AM To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: [meteorite-list] January Comet? Doug or anyone currently on line with position of the recent Comet, I'd appreciate a head's up to locate it OR is it that conspicuous in the SW @ twilight??? It promises to be clear with a moonless twilight this evening in Plymouth, MA?? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet!
absolutely and fun too esp ben's little TIP. Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 11:47 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! Hi, Gerry, How big is nano again, one billionth of a ---? One billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter, so if you had nanobacteria that were 100 nm long, it would take 10,000 of them, head to tail (assuming they had heads or tails), to span one millimeter. A wavelength of visible light would be 400 nm to 770 nm (depending on its color), so a 100 nm nanobacteria would be about 1/6 the width of one wavelength of yellow light. (Do you suppose they surf?) There is a smaller unit, the angstrom, which is one ten-billionth of a meter, or ten times smaller. We're talking SMALL here -- individual atoms range from five angstroms (hydrogen) up to about 15 angstroms in size (lead). Figure atoms at one nm +/- half an nm. So a 100 nm critter is at most only 200 atoms wide and could only contain about 8 million small atoms if it were a sphere. A simple organic molecule, like cooking oil, is about 20 angstroms across; that's 2 nm. We can measure that molecular size in our backyards, by the way, by placing a tiny drop of oil of known volume on the surface of a big calm pool of water and waiting for it to spread out as far as it can go, then divide the known volume by the area of the oil-slick, which is only one molecule thick. Neat trick, eh? Who thought of that? Benjamin Franklin... Most viruses are 10 nm to 100 nm, but the record-holder is 400 nm, or bigger than some bacteria. Most bacteria range from 200 nm (the very tiniest) up to big nasty ones at 2000 nm. Helpful little animals like yeast cells (there are 600+ species of yeast) are 2000 nm, no bigger than a bacterium, up to 15,000 nm. Cells of protozoa like amoeba are 20,000 to 30,000 nm across, but every once in a while an ameoba may grow to 4,000,000 nm across --- that's 4 mm and almost big enough to have a sit-down talk with! (If they had anything to say...) Protozoa like paramecium are very complicated creatures. Even though they are only one cell, they have specialized cellular structures that function as gullets, stomachs, excretory organs, and legs. They have an interesting sex life and probably have more to say than that amoeba... The many paramecium species range from less than 100,000 nm up to as much as 500,000 nm, or big enough to see with the naked eye (well, your eyes, maybe; mine are not quite that good). One of your own 100,000 billion human body cells is on average, about 10,000 nm across and weighs, on average, about one nanogram, less if you're skinny. And, me, I'm about 1,775,000,000 nm tall. Does that put things in perspective? Sterling K. Webb --- - Original Message - From: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 7:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Strangest link between life on earth and mars yet! The relatively recent acceptence of germs required a revolution in the medical community ushering in the modern norm where cleanliness became the imperative. So it seems plausible that self-replicating nano things might make modern science balk. How big is nano again, one billionth of a---? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006P1(McNaught)
Probably the biggest carboneous chondrite you'll see for years, and it's headed AWAY from eBay. PRICELESS!! Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Ron Baalke [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Meteorite Mailing List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:47 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Brightest Comet in 30 Years: Comet C/2006P1(McNaught) __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] January Comet?
Doug or anyone currently on line with position of the recent Comet, I'd appreciate a head's up to locate it OR is it that conspicuous in the SW twilight??? For you Yanks near Plymouth and Boston, you can see it weather/pollution permitting from 16:50 until it sets at 17:22. Use the Sunset as a reference. That's today EST Jan 11. At Your area: 16:36 the Sun sets at a 241 degree bearing (azimuth) clockwise from North (270 is due west, so it is SW like you said). Good luck you have just a few minutes to get out and bag it. The rest of the USA will have similar positions relative to the point and timing of Sunset, though the further deep down in Dixie you go the harder and harder and more compressed the timing is... Comet (Turn Right at Sunset): 244.5 degrees at Sunset (just 3.5 degrees to the right of Sunset point - a half 10x50 binocular field away). 247 degrees at 15 minutes after Sunset (6 degrees right of Sunset point). 249 degrees at 30 minutes after Sunset (8 degrees right of Sunset point). For Jerry comet altitude will be: After Sunset 30 minutes: 2 degrees 15 Min: 4.5 degrees 0 min: 7 degrees Good Luck, go for it, I might let you know how it went for me later, but have had some sad heath issues lately to deal with (not my own). The summary for my observing is Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes like the Jimmy Buffett song says. Best wishes for the Comet, Doug __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] January Comet?
Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary On 11 Jan 2007 at 15:13, MexicoDoug wrote: Doug or anyone currently on line with position of the recent Comet, I'd appreciate a head's up to locate it OR is it that conspicuous in the SW twilight??? For you Yanks near Plymouth and Boston, you can see it weather/pollution permitting from 16:50 until it sets at 17:22. Use the Sunset as a reference. That's today EST Jan 11. At Your area: 16:36 the Sun sets at a 241 degree bearing (azimuth) clockwise from North (270 is due west, so it is SW like you said). Good luck you have just a few minutes to get out and bag it. The rest of the USA will have similar positions relative to the point and timing of Sunset, though the further deep down in Dixie you go the harder and harder and more compressed the timing is... Comet (Turn Right at Sunset): 244.5 degrees at Sunset (just 3.5 degrees to the right of Sunset point - a half 10x50 binocular field away). 247 degrees at 15 minutes after Sunset (6 degrees right of Sunset point). 249 degrees at 30 minutes after Sunset (8 degrees right of Sunset point). For Jerry comet altitude will be: After Sunset 30 minutes: 2 degrees 15 Min: 4.5 degrees 0 min: 7 degrees Good Luck, go for it, I might let you know how it went for me later, but have had some sad heath issues lately to deal with (not my own). The summary for my observing is Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes like the Jimmy Buffett song says. Best wishes for the Comet, Doug __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Comet McNaught imaged by STEREO
Hi All, Hot off the presses: http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/images/hi1b_comet.jpg This image was taken by STEREO less than 3 hours ago. All I can say is WOW --Rob __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet?
Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Fiery, Smoking Object Crashes in Iran
Well, I wouldn't describe Sikhote-Alin as a smoking object exactly. More of a low altitude fragmentation of a massive object. If something like that happened in Iran, it would be pretty obvious. Clearly, plenty of falls have been preceded by witnessed fireballs that produced smoke trails. The informed source was obviously incorrect if this sort of smoking is what he had in mind. But if the report was a meteor that smoked to the ground, and was on fire- well, I'd have to agree that it's very, very unlikely a meteor was involved. I couldn't really tell from the report what was being described. Chris * Chris L Peterson Cloudbait Observatory http://www.cloudbait.com - Original Message - From: Ron Baalke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite Mailing List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 5:38 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fiery, Smoking Object Crashes in Iran Meantime, an informed source told that the object has been on fire and there has been thick smoke coming out of it prior to the crash, concluding that the object couldn't have been a meteor as meteors do not smoke. I guess this informed source never heard of the Sikhote-Alin fall. Ron Baalke __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet?
Quiz (Svend Bugl out of contest): A famous German author of 20th century was so lucky to see Halley twice, in full consciousness, and wrote a book about this experience. Who was it (don't google, have a look around in your private libraries :-) Matthias Baermann - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 10:31 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Fw: Re-2: January Comet?
- Original Message - From: Matthias Bärmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:16 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Wow, Martin, meteoritefast! (And with out of contest I meant of course Svend B u h l , author of an extensive brillant study dedicated to Ernst Jünger - sorry, Svend, somehow irritated by all the Buggleboos ... ;-) - Original Message - From: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Matthias Bärmann' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:09 PM Subject: AW: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Zwei Mal Halley, Jünger, Ernschtl -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Matthias Bärmann Gesendet: Donnerstag, 11. Januar 2007 22:51 An: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Quiz (Svend Bugl out of contest): A famous German author of 20th century was so lucky to see Halley twice, in full consciousness, and wrote a book about this experience. Who was it (don't google, have a look around in your private libraries :-) Matthias Baermann - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 10:31 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Fw: Re-2: January Comet?
Yah Matthias, that was to difficult for other countries. Let's make it easiest, who is often quoted with: I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Buckleboo! Martin - Original Message - From: Matthias Bärmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:16 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Wow, Martin, meteoritefast! (And with out of contest I meant of course Svend B u h l , author of an extensive brillant study dedicated to Ernst Jünger - sorry, Svend, somehow irritated by all the Buggleboos ... ;-) - Original Message - From: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Matthias Bärmann' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:09 PM Subject: AW: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Zwei Mal Halley, Jünger, Ernschtl -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Matthias Bärmann Gesendet: Donnerstag, 11. Januar 2007 22:51 An: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Quiz (Svend Bugl out of contest): A famous German author of 20th century was so lucky to see Halley twice, in full consciousness, and wrote a book about this experience. Who was it (don't google, have a look around in your private libraries :-) Matthias Baermann - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 10:31 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet?
In a message dated 1/11/2007 2:37:34 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ You are not the only one Bernd. Cloudy yesterday, thick overcast today, a sky heavy with of snow. (AGAIN!) And a whole bunch of tall mountains to the West! Not a chance! Anne M. Black www.IMPACTIKA.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] President, I.M.C.A. Inc. www.IMCA.cc __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet?
Hello :-)I've seen Halley, Hale Bopp, Hyatukate, Macholz, Schwassmann-Wachmann, Swan, Faye, McNaughtI've photos from Macholz, Schwassmann-Wachmann, Swan, Faye and McNaught ;-)see http://www.sternhimmel.ueber-ulm.de/solar1.htm... and a final photo from today :http://www.sternhimmel-ueber-ulm.de/scratch/McNaughtk2.jpgBigger version :http://www.sternhimmel-ueber-ulm.de/scratch/McNaught2.jpgThomasIMCA #0298New Millenium ObservatoryDer Sternhimmel über Ulmhttp://www.sternhimmel-ueber-ulm.de -Original Message- Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:31:07 +0100 Subject: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] New NASA Orbiter Sees Details of 1997 Pathfinder Site
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-005 New NASA Orbiter Sees Details of 1997 Pathfinder Site January 11, 2007 The high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has imaged the 1997 landing site of NASA's Mars Pathfinder, revealing new details of hardware on the surface and the geology of the region. The new image from the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is available on the Internet at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia09105.html and at links from http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu . The Pathfinder mission's small rover, Sojourner, appears to have moved closer to the stationary lander after the final data transmission from the lander, based on tentative identification of the rover in the image. Pathfinder landed on July 4, 1997, and transmitted data for 12 weeks. Unlike the two larger rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, currently active on Mars, Sojourner could communicate only with the lander, not directly with Earth. The lander's ramps, science deck and portions of the airbags can be discerned in the new image. The parachute and backshell used in the spacecraft's descent lie to the south, behind a hill from the viewpoint of the lander. Four bright features may be portions of the heat shield. Rob Manning, Mars program chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, said, The new image provides information about Pathfinder's landing and should help confirm our reconstruction of the descent as well as give us insights into the landing and the airbag bounces. Dr. Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, said Pathfinder's landing site is one of the most-studied places on Mars. Making connections between this new orbital image and the geological information collected at ground level aids our interpretation of orbital images of other places. For more information on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro . Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726 NASA Headquarters, Washington Lori Stiles 520-626-4402 University of Arizona, Tucson 2007-005 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Those Aussies!!
What's going on there in Cranbourne? Almost no export permits for meteorites, only to hang them in front of a MacDonalds restaurant on a burb-road? http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/images/cranbourne/photos/43.jpg http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/images/cranbourne/photos/42.jpg Buckleboo? Martin __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Spectarular Comet!!
Dear List Please do NOT miss an opportunity to see Comet McNaught. Adjectives pale in comparison. Follow Sterling's guide. Any pair of Binoculars or spotting scope will help. It's close to the evening western horizon so think of a place or a height where you can see an relatively unobstructed view west. If you can see Venus look south [to the right]and lower in the sky. The Coma is very bright and the tail is gigantic! It's well worth the time and CHILL. Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Those Aussies!!
Martin - they are only phucken replikas If ya peek thru the site you'll find and I quote An unusual attraction within Cranbourne is a meteorite display. Situated within the park on the corner of the South Gippsland Highway and Camms Road (opposite The Settlement Hotel) are full-scale replicas of meteorites that landed in the area in 1860. Cranbourne still is available if ya know where to buy it from... The dealer who hates dinosaur egg jokes has plenty for sale... I've got a couple of small part-slices 1 x 20 g and 1 x 10 g merely becoz it pleases me to collect small pieces of the largest Australian irons My current focus is Queensland (Australia) meteorites... I am missing a few but by god have lotsa new Queensland finds to swapntrade The export regulations are not too stringent - in short if there is a significant holding in a public institution eg a museum or institution - then u are allowed to export - one usually contacts the geoscience curator at the relevant state museum to arrange permission - its more komplicated in WA where the State owns any found after a certain date... And buckleboo to you too No funny pictures today lol - Original Message - From: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 9:45 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] Those Aussies!! What's going on there in Cranbourne? Almost no export permits for meteorites, only to hang them in front of a MacDonalds restaurant on a burb-road? http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/images/cranbourne/photos/43.jpg http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/images/cranbourne/photos/42.jpg Buckleboo? Martin __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] AD cutting Gibeon, Henbury and a couple others. Sale
Hello everyone hope your new year has started well. I am just getting started cutting a 70 pound Gibeon with very few fractures and a great etch. So anyone looking for a certain thickness or big slice, now is time to get your order in. Once I fill any orders it gets sliced into regular 3mm slices. I am also cutting some really great Henbury, it is about 30 pounds so if you want a nice full slice cut just for you. Now is the time to put in your order. Please contact me off list for more specific information. Thanks -- Mike Miller Po Box 314 Gerber Ca 96035 www.meteoritefinder.com 530-384-1598 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Dust Around Nearby Star Like Powder Snow
Media Relations University of California-Berkeley Media Contacts: Robert Sanders (510) 643-6998, (510) 642-3734 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, January 08, 2007 Dust around nearby star like powder snow By Robert Sanders, Media Relations BERKELEY -- Astronomers peering into the dust surrounding a nearby red dwarf star have found that the dust grains have a fluffiness comparable to that of powder snow, the ne plus ultra of skiers and snowboarders. This is the first definitive measurement of the porosity of dust outside our solar system, and is akin to looking back 4 billion years into the early days of our planetary system, say researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. That was the era after the formation of planets, but before the remaining snowball- or softball-sized rubble was ground into dust by collisions and blown out of the inner solar system. We believe that this porosity is primordial, and reflects the agglomeration process whereby interstellar grains first assembled to form macroscopic objects, said James Graham, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy. The grains are probably microscopic dirty snowballs, a mixture of ice and rock. The difference between a snowflake and a hailstone -- both are ice but with very different porosities -- occurs because they form very differently, he added. Hailstones grow in violent thunderstorms; snowflakes grow under much more sedate meteorological conditions. Similarly, we conclude that the dust grains in the AU Mic debris disk formed by gentle agglomeration. Graham and Paul Kalas, a UC Berkeley assistant adjunct professor of astronomy, discussed their findings on the AU Microscopii (AU Mic) system at a press conference yesterday (Sunday, Jan. 7) during the Seattle meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Graham, Kalas and former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Brenda C. Matthews, now at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, also presented their findings yesterday during a poster session at the meeting. Their paper on the dust in the AU Mic disk was published in the Jan. 1, 2007, issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Objects in our solar system also are porous -- comet grains that have lost their ice are like birds' nests, while some asteroids have been shown to be half-empty rubble piles -- but none are as full of nothingness as the dust in AU Mic, which is more than 90 percent vacuum. Most things we see have been compactified or compressed so that the vacuum has been squeezed out and filled in. Once you get to macroscopic objects a few inches across, those interstices are compressed and go away. So, 97 percent is a very high value, Graham said. The astronomers were studying the closest known star with a dusty debris disk and possible planetary system, which were discovered around AU Mic by Kalas nearly three years ago. Red dwarfs like AU Mic, with a mass less than half that of the sun, are the most common stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. And at 33 light years distance, AU Mic is close enough for the Hubble Space Telescope to image with exquisite spatial resolution. Hubble observations have previously shown that the 12 million-year-old AU Mic system bears a strong resemblance to our much older solar system, with a ring of debris around it analogous to our Kuiper Belt of comets and Pluto-sized objects. This outer belt starts about 40 to 50 astronomical units (AU) from the central star, where an AU is 93 million miles, the average distance of the Earth from the sun. The inside of this region appears devoid of dust, hence the suspicion that the star has planets and other orbiting debris that have removed the dust. The UC Berkeley researchers, however, were curious about the dust grains far smaller than the rocks and planets. The big question in planet formation is how dust grains grow from interstellar sizes -- about 100 nanometers -- to macroscopic objects, Graham said. A 100 nanometer grain is one-tenth of a micron; a thousand such grains would span the diameter of a human hair. We know that interstellar grains exist; we know that planets exist, but what we don't know is how they grow. On August 1, 2004, the Hubble telescope slipped Polaroid glasses over its Advanced Camera for Surveys and snapped pictures of the nearly edge-on AU Mic disk as the polarizing filters rotated, sampling different linear polarizations. We use the polarizing filters to measure how the light reflects and scatters off the dust, Graham said. The degree of polarization is useful for the same reason that polarizing sunglasses are useful to reduce the glare of reflected sunlight from the ocean. By comparing the brightness of the scattered light at different polarizations, the researchers were able to calculate the porosity of the dust, which turned out to be greater than 90 percent, analogous to powder snow common in California's Sierra Nevada. The most porous dust is similar to the driest powder snow on Earth, termed
[meteorite-list] Old Sikhote-Alin documentary film
I don´t know whether this has already been posted here on the list, but in a German internet forum about minerals and meteorites I just found a link to Jeff Kuykens´ Australian site, which hosts a nice old b/w documentary film about the Sikhote-Alin fall: http://www.meteorites.com.au/oddsends/sikhote-alin.html [Rather big, 43.8 MB, and almost 18 minutes long. With English subtitles provided by expert translator (Russian native speaker) Sergey Vassiliev] You might enjoy this oldie! Shortly before the film ends, there is a small section showing a view of the Boguslavka IIAB Hex meteorite on display in the Russian Academy of Sciences. For several weeks now I have been the proud owner of a very nice 13.15-g-slice of that one showing excellent Neumann lines. Some slices of this meteorite may still be available from Chladni´s Heirs (Martin Altmann, Stefan Ralew, Andi Gren) at the Tucson show, well, if you hurry... Alex Berlin/Germany __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Geologists Discover That Black Diamonds Are From Outer Space
National Science Foundation Arlington, Virginia Media Contacts: Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 January 8, 2007 Press Release 07-001 Diamonds from Outer Space: Geologists Discover Origin of Earth's Mysterious Black Diamonds If indeed a diamond is forever, the most primitive origins of Earth's so-called black diamonds were in deep, universal time, geologists have discovered. Black diamonds came from none other than interstellar space. In a paper published online on December 20, 2006, in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists Jozsef Garai and Stephen Haggerty of Florida International University, along with Case Western Reserve University researchers Sandeep Rekhi and Mark Chance, claim an extraterrestrial origin for the unique black diamonds, also called carbonado diamonds. Infrared synchrotron radiation at Brookhaven National Laboratory was used to discover the diamonds' source. Trace elements critical to an 'ET' origin are nitrogen and hydrogen, said Haggerty. The presence of hydrogen in the carbonado diamonds indicates an origin in a hydrogen-rich interstellar space, he and colleagues believe. The term carbonado was coined by the Portuguese in Brazil in the mid-18th century; it's derived from its visual similarity to porous charcoal. Black diamonds are found only in Brazil and the Central African Republic. Conventional diamonds are mined from explosive volcanic rocks [kimberlites] that transport them from depths in excess of 100 kilometers to the Earth's surface in a very short amount of time, said Sonia Esperanca, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. This process preserves the unique crystal structure that makes diamonds the hardest natural material known. From Australia to Siberia, from China to India, the geological settings of conventional diamonds are virtually identical, said Haggerty. None of them are compatible with the formation of black diamonds. Approximately 600 tons of conventional diamonds have been mined, traded, polished and adorned since 1900. But not a single black/carbonado diamond has been discovered in the world's mining fields, Haggerty said. The new data support earlier research by Haggerty showing that carbonado diamonds formed in stellar supernovae explosions. Black diamonds were once the size of asteroids, a kilometer or more in diameter when they first landed on Earth. -NSF- The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of $5.58 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 1,700 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes nearly 10,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly. IMAGE CAPTION: [http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/carbonado_h.jpg (1.75MB)] Black, or carbonado, diamonds, came from outer space, geologists have discovered. Credit: Steve Haggerty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Old Sikhote-Alin documentary film
Thanks Alex, Great piece of historic film. Graham Ensor, Nr Barwell, uk Alexander Seidel wrote: I don´t know whether this has already been posted here on the list, but in a German internet forum about minerals and meteorites I just found a link to Jeff Kuykens´ Australian site, which hosts a nice old b/w documentary film about the Sikhote-Alin fall: http://www.meteorites.com.au/oddsends/sikhote-alin.html [Rather big, 43.8 MB, and almost 18 minutes long. With English subtitles provided by expert translator (Russian native speaker) Sergey Vassiliev] You might enjoy this oldie! Shortly before the film ends, there is a small section showing a view of the Boguslavka IIAB Hex meteorite on display in the Russian Academy of Sciences. For several weeks now I have been the proud owner of a very nice 13.15-g-slice of that one showing excellent Neumann lines. Some slices of this meteorite may still be available from Chladni´s Heirs (Martin Altmann, Stefan Ralew, Andi Gren) at the Tucson show, well, if you hurry... Alex Berlin/Germany __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Lightning Balls Created In The Lab
Is this really new stuff? I watched Bolas Luminosas and they looked almost identical to something I saw years ago on some BBC documentary about lightning. Some Scientist used a couple of hundred Decomissioned submarine batteries to generate sparks and got the same effect. I remember showing the video to kids I taught 7-8 years ago. Rob McC --- Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They look like the ideal pets for Dave Harris in the video -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Ron Baalke Gesendet: Donnerstag, 11. Januar 2007 18:50 An: Meteorite Mailing List Betreff: [meteorite-list] Lightning Balls Created In The Lab http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19325863.500 Lightning balls created in the lab Hazel Muir New Scientist 10 January 2007 Ball lightning could soon lose its status as a mystery, now that a team in Brazil has cooked up a simple recipe for making similar eerie orbs of light in the lab, even getting them to bounce around for several seconds. Watch a movie of the boucing balls here. http://www.espacociencia.pe.gov.br/multimidia.php Thousands of people have reported seeing ball lightning, a luminous sphere that sometimes appears during thunderstorms. It is typically the size of a grapefruit and lasts for a few seconds or minutes, sometimes hovering, even bouncing along the ground. One eyewitness saw a glowing ball burn through the screen door of a house in Oregon, navigate down to the basement and wreck an old mangle, while in another report, a similar orb bounced on a Russian teacher's head more than 20 times before vanishing. One theory suggests that ball lightning is a highly ionised blob of plasma held together by its own magnetic fields, while an exotic explanation claims the cause is mini black holes created in the big bang. A more down-to-earth theory, proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, is that ball lightning forms when lightning strikes soil, turning any silica in the soil into pure silicon vapour. As the vapour cools, the silicon condenses into a floating aerosol bound into a ball by charges that gather on its surface, and it glows with the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen. To test this idea, a team led by Antonio Pavao and Gerson Paiva from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil took wafers of silicon just 350 micrometres thick, placed them between two electrodes and zapped them with currents of up to 140 amps. Then over a couple of seconds, they moved the electrodes slightly apart, creating an electrical arc that vaporised the silicon. The arc spat out glowing fragments of silicon but also, sometimes, luminous orbs the size of ping-pong balls that persisted for up to 8 seconds. The luminous balls seem to be alive, says Pavao. He says their fuzzy surfaces emitted little jets that seemed to jerk them forward or sideways, as well as smoke trails that formed spiral shapes, suggesting the balls were spinning. From their blue-white or orange-white colour, Pavao's team estimates that they have a temperature of roughly 2000 kelvin. The balls were able to melt plastic, and one even burned a hole in Paiva's jeans. These are by far the longest-lived glowing balls ever made in the lab. Earlier experiments using microwaves created luminous balls but they disappeared milliseconds after the microwaves were switched off. The lifetimes of our fireballs are about a hundred or more times higher than that obtained by microwaves, says Pavao, whose findings will appear in Physical Review Letters. Abrahamson is thrilled. It made my year when I heard about it, he says. The balls, although still small, lasted long enough to come into the mainstream of observed natural ball lightning. Pavao's team is currently working out the chemical reactions involved in the balls' formation, and experimenting with other materials that might work too, including pure metals, alloys and sulphur compounds. From issue 2586 of New Scientist magazine, 10 January 2007, page 12 __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] January Comet?
WOW. I SENT THIS ONE OUT DAYS AGO!!??? Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Gerald Flaherty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 2:31 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] January Comet? Doug or anyone currently on line with position of the recent Comet, I'd appreciate a head's up to locate it OR is it that conspicuous in the SW @ twilight??? It promises to be clear with a moonless twilight this evening in Plymouth, MA?? Jerry Flaherty __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] January Comet?
Sorry for you Gary. I got a look at it last nite. Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Gary K. Foote [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 4:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] January Comet? Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary On 11 Jan 2007 at 15:13, MexicoDoug wrote: Doug or anyone currently on line with position of the recent Comet, I'd appreciate a head's up to locate it OR is it that conspicuous in the SW twilight??? For you Yanks near Plymouth and Boston, you can see it weather/pollution permitting from 16:50 until it sets at 17:22. Use the Sunset as a reference. That's today EST Jan 11. At Your area: 16:36 the Sun sets at a 241 degree bearing (azimuth) clockwise from North (270 is due west, so it is SW like you said). Good luck you have just a few minutes to get out and bag it. The rest of the USA will have similar positions relative to the point and timing of Sunset, though the further deep down in Dixie you go the harder and harder and more compressed the timing is... Comet (Turn Right at Sunset): 244.5 degrees at Sunset (just 3.5 degrees to the right of Sunset point - a half 10x50 binocular field away). 247 degrees at 15 minutes after Sunset (6 degrees right of Sunset point). 249 degrees at 30 minutes after Sunset (8 degrees right of Sunset point). For Jerry comet altitude will be: After Sunset 30 minutes: 2 degrees 15 Min: 4.5 degrees 0 min: 7 degrees Good Luck, go for it, I might let you know how it went for me later, but have had some sad heath issues lately to deal with (not my own). The summary for my observing is Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes like the Jimmy Buffett song says. Best wishes for the Comet, Doug __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet?
Bernd and List, this beat Hyakutake by several orders Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 4:31 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Fw: Re-2: January Comet?
Mark Twain! Jerry Flaherty - Original Message - From: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Matthias Bärmann' [EMAIL PROTECTED]; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 5:40 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fw: Re-2: January Comet? Yah Matthias, that was to difficult for other countries. Let's make it easiest, who is often quoted with: I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Buckleboo! Martin - Original Message - From: Matthias Bärmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:16 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Wow, Martin, meteoritefast! (And with out of contest I meant of course Svend B u h l , author of an extensive brillant study dedicated to Ernst Jünger - sorry, Svend, somehow irritated by all the Buggleboos ... ;-) - Original Message - From: Martin Altmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Matthias Bärmann' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:09 PM Subject: AW: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Zwei Mal Halley, Jünger, Ernschtl -Ursprüngliche Nachricht- Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Matthias Bärmann Gesendet: Donnerstag, 11. Januar 2007 22:51 An: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Quiz (Svend Bugl out of contest): A famous German author of 20th century was so lucky to see Halley twice, in full consciousness, and wrote a book about this experience. Who was it (don't google, have a look around in your private libraries :-) Matthias Baermann - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 10:31 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Re-2: January Comet? Gary disappointedly comments: Clouds to the west the last two nights. I got some good sunset pics, but no comet :( Gary Now, drum roll, ... my comment: Clouds here to the west, east, north and south the last two nights :-( Thomas Tuchan must have been extremely lucky ... his home town Ulm is only about 200 km from where I live. Sincere congrats, Thomas! Well, you can't have it all - I saw Halley, I saw Hale-Bopp, I saw Hyakutake, ... plus some telescopic comets, so I shouldn't complain! Cometary Cheers, Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] University of Toronto Talk by Christopher Charles Age of the Solar System?
List, Below is an email from Roman Jirasek. Very interesting. Hi Mike, can you post the following to the list please? My settings are screwed up and can't post this. I tried this morning but didn't see it in the archives. Thanks man. - Roman Last night my wife and I attended a talk about Calcium Aluminium-rich Inclusions in stony meteorites at the University of Toronto. The speaker was Christopher Charles, a 2nd year Ph. D. student at the Department of Geology, University of Toronto. He starts off with basic meteorite knowledge and then gets into the chemistry and dating of meteorites using radioactive clocks. Then concluding with the suggestion that CAI's may be much older that previously thought, and that the solar system may also be much older. It was very interesting, with a good use of visual information, pictures/graphs. People were told to bring meteorites to display before and after the talk, which several of us did. I met Jeffrey Shallit, another Jeff that attended my meteorite party several years ago, and Patrick Herrmann, (a world class collection owner). Here is the speakers abstract: Some of the most intensely studied natural materials include the three meteorite families (stones, irons, stony-irons) which harbor a number of radioactive clocks locked in phases of these objects at their formation. Stony meteorites are particularly important since they enclose the oldest dated phases, the calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions (CAIs) at 4567.4 Ma, which define the precise age of the Solar System (Amelin et al. 2002). However, ages of the earliest known stony (achondritic) rocks, the angrites, are questioning this Solar System age defined by CAIs, suggesting it is actually much older. This significant finding is turning back the clock on the birth of the Solar System, which may potentially require a re-calibration of all other short-lived radioactive clocks like 182Hf-182W, etc. In this talk I will review the three main classes of meteorites and their properties, then focus on stony meteorites and discuss why the lead-lead ages of angrites and CAIs are revolutionizing our understanding of exactly when the Solar System actually formed. This presentation should offer an interesting overview on meteorites and the origin of the universe! All in all a worthwhile trip into the city. My thanks goes out to Jeffery Shallit and Mike Tettenborn for letting me know about the talk. Mike could not make his long drive, how much snow ya got up there? Best regards, Roman Jirasek www.meteoritelabels.com __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] University of Toronto Talk by Christopher Charles Age of the Solar System?
Hi Tett, Roman and all, Tett Posted: Then concluding with the suggestion that CAI's may be much older that previously thought, and that the solar system may also be much older. Wish I could have heard the talk also. CAI's have been one of the more intriguing things found in our solar systems meteorites. It has been brought up before that these may have been remnants from first generation stars that super nova and form the solar system. I've heard an age of about 10 billion years old. After all, iron is a by-product of first generation stars but the isotopes have been reset by re-heating. Guess the question is where and when did the CAI's form. It has been speculated that CAI's are ash from the super nova event (s) that generated our solar system. Perhaps the conclusions are changing. --AL Mitterling __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Rocks From Space Picture of the Day
http://www.spacerocksinc.com/January_11.html __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
